Thank you for the opportunity to provide input into the Zero Draft for the
upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD
2012), also known as Rio +20.

The organizations listed below represent a wide range of perspectives and
interests, united in our strong support for sustainable energy access for all.
At a time when climate change threatens the lives and livelihoods of
ourselves and future generations, we believe there should be no trade-of
between poverty alleviation and sustainable development; we must tackle
both at the same time.

We therefore welcome the fact that Energy for Sustainable Development has
been identiŽed as a key issue by the Preparatory Committee for UNCSD
2012. We also welcome the designation by the UN of 2012 as the
International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. Within this context, it is our
hope that UNCSD 2012 can adopt goals and targets, including time-tables
for their implementation, that are visionary and inspirational, while at the
same time efective, realistic and anchored in national commitments. Goals,
targets and time-tables can be realistic only if they move the world away
from business as usual, and put us on a track that is efective in tackling
climate change.

Our proposal for the outcome document of UNCSD 2012 reßects in part our
concern for the insufcient progress by parties to the UNFCCC to establish a
fair, ambitious and binding international climate agreement that is
sufciently solid and strong to protect the climate. This is the key objective
of the Climate Convention as deŽned in its Article 2: "stabilization of
greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would
prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Such
a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufcient to allow
ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food
production is not threatened and to enable economic development to
proceed in a sustainable manner." We have already exceeded the
atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases that is considered a limit
beyond which we will experience "dangerous climate change" and the need
for urgent action grows daily.

Our submission also reflects the
progress made since the World
Summit on Sustainable Development
of 2002 on the development and
deployment of clean and renewable
energy technologies. In 2010,
renewable energy accounted for
$211 billion in new investments an
increase of 32% from the previous
year.

We therefore propose that UNCSD
2012 builds on the renewable energy
sector's success to give new impetus
to the eforts to secure an
international climate regime that can
work with the
environmental constraints and imperatives that have been identifed by the
Fourth Assessment of the IPCC.

The Rio+20 alternative

Whilst UNCSD 2012 is an opportunity to look back at the last twenty years
since the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, it is most importantly an opportunity to
choose the track that we want to take for the next twenty years.
Based on economic, social and environmental indicators, the choice
governments will face in Rio is summarized here.

2. Accelerate transition to a 100% renewable energy and energy efcient
economy through efective government policies, education, investments in
research and development etc.

3. Promote equity and justice at the heart of the green economy, ensuring
the right to development for developing countries while meeting green and
poverty eradication objectives;

4. Protect and conserve natural capital and biodiversity, and equitably share
the benefits from their exploration and sustainable exploitation;

5. Efectively address the need for changes in production-consumption
patterns Žrst and foremost within the countries member of the OECD, in line
with the concept of common but diferentiated responsibility enshrined in
the Rio 92 agreements; and

6. Enhance the full participation and consent of communities afected by
development projects, and the stewardship of natural resources and
biodiversity by local communities.

Climate Change and energy

A Green economy based on fairness, social welfare, and environmental
integrity needs to be powered by green energy Š that is energy that provides
the services needed without destroying the local, regional or global
environment or negatively impacting people. 100% Green energy means
zero carbon, zero deforestation, sufcient to satisfy needs, and empowering
local communities.

Delivering truly sustainable energy requires a re-think of the way we
produce, use and distribute energy. We need to produce energy using
renewable sources, we need to use energy efciently and we need to have
efcient local distribution networks and smart grids. Many reports (for
example IPCC, UNEP, UNDP) recognise this and various scenarios have
been produced that show how these changes can be implemented.

Consistent across these scenarios, reports and case studies is the clear need
for supportive government policies. In other words, the barriers to the
uptake of green energy sources are mainly political not technological. In
this context, we urge governments to seize UNCSD 2012 as the
opportunity to create a political environment that eliminates the
obstacles and barriers and to commit to clear targets and timetables to
provide the framework that will encourage the uptake of clean energy
systems (energy efciency, renewable technologies and decentralised
schemes). This must go together with the removal of policies that
undermine and suppress them (such as perverse subsidies; legal frameworks
that support large centralised dirty power; loans and aid that support fossil
and/or nuclear fuels). Existing barriers include lack of appropriate policy or
poor policy implementation; inadequate Žscal and subsidies policies,
difculty accessing Žnance; inappropriate grid integration and infrastructure;
poor planning, and lock-in of existing technology.

A renewed political commitment is needed because voluntary measures
alone do not deliver what is required. Governments must lead and set the
framework to send the necessary signal to the markets.
Renewable energy targets

As identiŽed in the UN Secretary GeneralÕs report on the promotion of new
and renewable sources of energy there are a number of long-term energy
scenarios that provide projections for renewable energy in primary energy,
Žnal energy, electricity generation and electric generating capacity.
Governments need to set the framework to achieve the most ambitious
targets.

Therefore, as a first step towards UNCSD 2012, we call on the Bureau and
Secretariat to include the following elements in the compilation document
and ultimately the Zero Draft for discussion in the coming weeks, in order to
facilitate discussions and decision on these key issues:

-
Vision: UNCSD 2012 should agree a long-term vision that bases the
green economy on 100% clean and renewable energy sources and on
energy efciency, to guide and inspire policy decision-makers, and
trigger incentives.

-
Efective commitment to clean energy: we need a commitment to
short and medium term actions which will implement this vision. We
recommend by 2020, globally:

o 30% of energy use from renewables up from 16 % as
outlined in REN21Õs 2011 Renewables Global Status Report;

These goals require national, sub-national, municipal, and/or corporate
actions to achieve them and should be implemented immediately (within a 2
to 5 year time scale) putting countries onto an ambitious pathway. The
International Renewable Energy Authority (IRENA) and relevant national
renewable energy authorities and organisations could play an important role
in working with governments to develop national action plans as well as
sharing best practices and progress.

Some key actions are identified below:

-
Removal of fossil fuel subsidies and perverse incentives including
aid, loans or other subsidies that encourage the further
development of fossil or nuclear fuels: accelerate the phase out of
subsidies in line with the G20 commitment, redirecting revenues to
those in needs and to support renewable energy and energy efciency
programmes.

- Establish an international Žnancial transaction tax (FTT): which
could raise as much as $400 billion annually that would make a real
impact on combating climate change and eliminating poverty.

Conclusions

A renewed political commitment is needed. Voluntary measures have not
delivered what is needed, nor will they be able to do so at the rate required.
Governments must lead and set the framework to provide the necessary
signal because what is at stake is too important to leave to laissez-faire.

A key lesson of the last 20 years is that delays cause more pain whether
that is economic, environmental or social. However, Žrst we need to
acknowledge where we have failed and why; then we need to agree that the
situation is urgent and that change needs to happen rapidly. Then,
governments must commit to the policies and measures needed to change
direction with targets and timetables that translate into real actions and
behavioural changes that start from day 1 after Rio.

We are committed to contribute to putting these measures, targets and
actions into practice and ofer cooperation and engagement as change will
need multi-stakeholder approaches and partnering